Jalen Hurts, Jalen Carter lead Eagles’ humiliation of the Cowboys: ‘Those moments were the biggest part of the game’

ARLINGTON, Texas — Less than 30 minutes into the game, the Eagles were trying to give the game away to the Dallas Cowboys. Less than 15 minutes later, the game was effectively over.

Jalen Hurts continued his smooth play of the past four games through the first quarter, but then he committed a pair of unforgivable turnovers after a four-game streak without any. But in the matter of two minutes, defensive tackle Jalen Carter minimized the damage of the second turnover with a big tackle for loss, Hurts regained his composure, and the Eagles were on their way to ending a six-game losing streak at AT&T Stadium with a 34-6 win.

“Those moments were probably the biggest part of the game,” said Saquon Barkley, who’s been the biggest part of the Eagles’ season. “We don’t know how the game goes after that. We definitely stopped their momentum. They get a turnover but don’t score a touchdown. Then we go score a touchdown. That’s an 11-point swing.”

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Carter and the Eagles defense remained stingy. It has allowed fewer than 11 points per game (not counting a fumble return and a special-teams TD) since the bye. It forced five turnovers Sunday, but did so against a toothless, leaderless offense. It was a rather pathetic showing from the hosts, who couldn’t capitalize on Hurts’ worst moments in months.

You almost pitied the Cowboys, a franchise whose self-aggrandizement has, for almost 30 years, far outstripped its self-competence. Now 3-6, Jerry’s world continued to crumble, and you almost felt sorry for them.

Almost.

Meanwhile, as the Eagles surged to 7-2 and first place in the NFC East with a fifth straight win, the Cowboys, the preseason division favorites, suffered a fifth straight loss with no help in sight. Dak Prescott, their $240 million quarterback, has a torn hamstring and Sunday missed the first of what might be eight games — or, for all intents and purposes, the rest of the season. His replacement, Cooper Rush, remains a poor substitute. Other injuries and deficiencies to the Cowboys and the garbage barge that is the New York Giants, now 2-8, have made the East a two-team race. The upstart Commanders lost Sunday and fell to 7-3, so Thursday Night Football in Philly now carries far more weight than schedulers anticipated when they made it a throwaway game on Prime Video.

What ended as the springboard for more questions about the future of Dallas coach Mike McCarthy, who should have been fired months ago, began with a series of Eagles catastrophes, authored mainly by Hurts.

On the first play of the second quarter, Hurts threw an end-zone interception toward Dallas Goedert, who wasn’t open and who was running into double coverage. Hurts seemed to enter a haze of confusion.

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On the ensuing drive he took two bad sacks and, in between, burned a timeout to avoid a delay-of-game penalty. The Birds punted, but Ezekiel Elliott fumbled into the end zone, which gave the Birds the ball back deep in their own territory, but Hurts remained hesitant.

Micah Parsons strip-sacked Hurts, who’d failed to tuck the ball away when contact was imminent, which gave the Cowboys the ball at the Eagles’ 6. A TD seemed inevitable.

Then, two plays later, on third-and-goal from the 3, Carter showed up.

Carter grabbed guard Cooper Beebe by the “5″ and “6″ on his jersey, threw him aside like a trash bag, and drove straight into Rico Dowdle for a 2-yard loss and forced a field goal that preserved a 7-6 lead.

“There’s times we’ve got to save the defense’s ass,” said Barkley, “and times when they’ve got to save our ass.”

The Eagles offense got the ball back with 1 minute, 43 seconds to play in the half, and Hurts found himself again.

Hurts feathered a 14-yard out pattern to A.J. Brown on the right sideline, hit DeVonta Smith on a 5-yard quickie in the same direction, then underthrew Smith on a blitz-buster deep pass. No worries.

On third-and-5, again facing a blitz, Hurts waited an extra beat for Brown to cross his face, right-to-left, over the middle; 18 yards. The Cowboys called off the dogs and Hurts scrambled for 24, dumped a hesitation route to third-down back Kenneth Gainwell that made it second-and-1 at the Cowboys’ 14. They blitzed again, but Hurts saw it, evaded (and maybe even baited) linebacker DeMarvion Overshown, rolled right and hit tight end Goedert at the goal line for a 14-6 halftime lead.

How did Hurts turn it around?

“One of the hardest things to do is just move on,” said Nick Sirianni, the Eagles’ head coach and chief philosopher. “He moved on. That’s what winners do.”

“You treat every play as its own,” Hurts said.

This game was different. Hurts is a Texas native, and he’d entered the game with an 80.9 passer rating and an 0-3 record in three visits to Jerry’s World. Sunday, his passer rating was 115.0. He’d done it under the guidance of offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, the former Cowboys backup QB and former offensive coordinator that Jerry Jones fired as the scapegoat for the Cowboys’ 2022 postseason collapse. It had been a long time since other players, like Texas native Lane Johnson and avowed Cowboys hater Brandon Graham, had left Big D happy.

“I think we all have a lot of history here,” Hurts said.

They’ve begun writing a new chapter by — as usual — not trying to do too much.

At his best, Hurts does no harm, and that’s how the third quarter began, with a conservative three-and-out from the Eagles, a 31-yard punt return from Cooper DeJean, which set up a cool, seven-play, 37-yard TD drive, punctuated by a 5-yard touchdown pass to Johnny Wilson, on which Hurts had seven unmolested seconds to throw.

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Hurts hit A.J. Brown for 44 yards to start the next drive and ended it with an 8-yard QB TD keeper, and, at 28-6, everybody in Arlington began planning the rest of their evening.

Hurts played one more series before Kenny Pickett replaced him. Hurts finished 14-for-20 for 202 passing yards with two touchdowns and an interception, as well as two rushing TDs. It was his fifth straight game with a passer rating over 100. He had none in the first four games of the season, when the team was 2-2.

Similarly, Carter continued his post-bye binge. He added a half-sack to his three others this season, hit Rush twice, and had that key tackle for loss. With the retirement of Fletcher Cox, Carter, in his second season, remains the defense’s most significant player.

Sunday, he made the most significant play.

“It was real big,” Carter agreed. “Let them just kick a field goal. Three points is better than six points, right?”

Yep.

Every time.